IN BRIEF The Region / IRVINE

Police Investigate Graffiti as a Hate Crime

Racially derogatory graffiti scrawled in the gated development of Turtle Ridge is being investigated as a hate crime, police said Saturday.

Officers arrived on Rose Trellis just after 6 a.m. to find graffiti on the car of an African American family living on the block. Further investigation, police said, uncovered a dozen other race-related markings in the area.